October 18, 2020

Would You Want to Be a Celebrity? (a writing prompt)

 Jerry and I had a very interesting discussion about celebritydom today. I can't remember exactly what sparked the conversation, but it turned into about 90 minutes of talking about what it would be like to be a celebrity, why they are so "special", what exactly constitutes a celebrity, etc. And would we want to be one?

I want to preface this by stating very loudly that I, in NO way shape or form, consider myself a "celebrity". However, I could relate to a lot of what we talked about because I've been called a "celebrity" numerous times by blog readers who don't actually know me. In emails, in person, in social media comments, etc. 

I promise that I am not trying to throw myself into the ranks of "actual" celebrities. But like I said, I can relate to some of the things that I imagine celebrities go through.

I've never been a big "celebrity geek" in the sense that I see them as these mythical beings that I'd love to meet and get autographs/selfies, etc. I tend to think of them as ordinary people who have very public jobs, and therefore, they get recognized. It's very hard for me to see them as anything other than ordinary people. What makes them more special than Joe Schmoe next door?

Sometimes I laugh when I get an email from someone who begins by saying something about my being a celebrity, because I'm usually home on a Saturday night in my pajamas with my laptop and a cat on my lap. And honestly, I think that "real" celebrities have a lot of those moments, too. I think that people imagine that they have these super busy, glamorous lifestyles where they are always doing something super fun.

Which brings me to my next point. I would NEVER want to be a "real" celebrity because once you are well-known, you can no longer have an ordinary life. I can't imagine going outside my home and having paparazzi take photos of me all the way to the grocery store where I simply want to buy some groceries and go home. It would be so stressful not being able to go anywhere without being recognized--the movies, the mall, a sporting event, your child's school play, a friend's wedding, etc.

When I think of celebrities, I think of actors and musicians, mainly--pop culture icons. I think of them as people who wanted to do something they truly enjoy and they happen to be good at it. And when you choose that profession, you get a whole lot of baggage with it, even if you don't want that. 

I LOVE when I am out somewhere and the occasional person recognizes me from my blog and they stop to say hello and introduce themselves. It's so fun to meet new people that way, and it's happened all over the country--so crazy to me! But it's very few and far between. I just can't imagine being a celebrity in the sense that EVERYBODY recognizes you and swarms you, drawing even more attention.

Celebrities are scrutinized for everything they do--from what they name their babies to where they go on vacation to what kind of diet they eat. And their bodies! Their bodies seem to be under microscopes--who gained weight and why, who lost weight and how, who is looking anorexic, and who is looking like they've binged their way up 100 pounds.

I feel scrutinized by my body already, because of the topic of my blog and how my blog came to be, and it's hard. Most people are so nice! But to be a "real" celebrity? They get so much more feedback via the media that I wouldn't be able to take it.

I imagine that celebrities have a ton of pressure to live up to certain expectations, too. Having to be careful about what they say and how they act in public. Also, the issue of who to trust--meeting new people would be scary, because what if that person decides to post photos or talk about your conversations publicly? It would be very hard to trust anyone at all who hasn't been in your life for a long time.

Anyway, I think the answer to the 'Would you want to be a celebrity?" is obvious from this post... NO, I would not. I feel like it would be too much pressure, stress, not enough privacy, fulfilling expectations from others, and living up to certain standards. I also think it would be lonely. Sure, you may have other celebrity friends around (and friends/family from years back), but making new friends would be difficult.

That said, here are some celebrities I've met. I am including these people as "celebrities" because they are well known in their niche. If you aren't a runner, for example, you may not know who Shalane Flanagan is. But if you are, it's a pretty big deal!

Kerry Sanders - Kerry is a news report from NBC who interviewed me in Key West for a segment on the Today Show. He was very nice and made me feel comfortable talking on camera.



Dr. Oz - I met him in 2009 at a small women's health convention. I saw him walking alone to leave, and I went up and introduced myself. I really loved watching him on Oprah. He was so kind! And then I met him again in 2011 when I was a guest on his show. He'd changed so much and didn't interact with the guests at all during commercial breaks. He didn't seem interested in the show. It was sad, really. I was invited on the show a second time, but I declined after he show turned into the "Lose 20 pounds in 10 days without diet or exercise!" type.


Ted Gibson - Ted was a hairstylist for What Not to Wear (the TV show) and he's the one who styled my hair for The Dr. Oz Show. He was SO sweet and I simply adored him.


Frank Thomas - I was a HUGE White Sox fan way back in my early teens, and Frank Thomas was my favorite player. I met him and got his autograph before a baseball game. (I have no photo of this)

Justin Verlander - Another baseball player. He played for the Tigers, and my brother Nathan and I raised the most money for his charity several years ago (thanks to all of YOU!). We were given tickets to a suite to watch a game, and Justin came in momentarily to meet us (and several other people). He seemed like he was there simply out of obligation, which was disappointing--I'd hoped he'd thank us for raising so much money. (Again, no photo--Justin requested no photos)

Bart Yasso - I was really excited about meeting Bart! He's known as the "Chief of Running" among runners, and has run in just about every race you can imagine. I even got to roast marshmallows with him at the Runner's World headquarters. I'd been invited to a blogger's event there. I've actually met him a couple of times. He is SO kind and funny, and he pretends like he remembers me ;)


Shalane Flanagan - Shalane is an elite runner who was the first American woman to win the NYC marathon. I met her at the Runner's World event and she was super nice. She's very soft spoken. She said her favorite post-race meal is a huge juicy burger and a beer.


The Hardy Boys - I had no idea who these guys were (they're professional wrestlers) when I met them at the Detroit airport, but I was a junior in high school going on a class trip to Washington DC. The boys from my class started getting SO excited and taking pictures with them. Even though I didn't know who they were, I joined in for a photo. 


Jordan Knight - From New Kids on the Block. This story is funny and embarrassing at the same time. In roughly 2008(?) I went to Michigan City, Indiana with my mom, sister, and my mom's friend. We were at a casino, and a band was going to start playing on a small stage. We sat down for a moment, and then I saw someone in my peripheral vision to my left.

I turned and not even three inches from my face was some random guy. He smiled and tilted his head in a goofy way. I gave him a weird look, then turned around to look the girls with a "What a creep!" look on my face. Audrey, Jeanie's friend, started laughing and asked me if I knew who that was. I told her no, and she explained it was Jordan Knight from NKOTB. Hahaha! He continued to walk and went up on the stage to perform with the band. (No photo for this, unfortunately)


Adam Grant - I have to include him, even though it's so hard to think of him as a celebrity in my mind, and here is why. No idea if any of you know who he is, but he's a multiple NY Times bestselling author for self-help/inspirational books (I haven't read any) and a podcaster. Interestingly, he was also one of my very best friends from the time I was 15 until about 19. I met him online (in an AOL chatroom... remember those?!) and he lived in West Bloomfield, MI--about an hour away from where I lived. 

After chatting online and on the phone for some time, my mom let me meet him in person, and we became close friends after that. We were JUST friends, but he was the first boy to actually buy me flowers--a dozen yellow roses--simply because I'd never gotten flowers before. Sweet, right? He was super smart and had his sights set on Harvard (which he was accepted into, of course). We used to drive back and forth to see each other pretty frequently until he moved to Boston to go to Harvard (he graduated high school in '99, and I graduated in '00). 

My friend Stacie and I even flew out to Boston when Adam was a freshman and we stayed in his dorm room for a few days to visit. Looking back, I think it's pretty cool--I stayed in a Harvard dorm room! I didn't think it was a big deal at the time. (By the way, he could do the coolest card trick I've ever seen to this day--it was called the 654 Club. He was very interested in magic, and we even saw David Copperfield at the Fox Theater in Detroit together.)

We emailed a bit until roughly 2005 or 2006, and then lost touch. A few years ago, I saw his face pop up on my Twitter feed, which I thought was odd because I wasn't following him. It turned out that someone I followed retweeted him--so I checked out his profile and learned that he's pretty famous. I tried getting in touch with him again, but he hasn't responded to any of my attempts. He was a really good friend, so I'm bummed that we can't catch up, but judging by his bio, he's insanely busy. And has no time for a little old non-celebrity like me ;) 

For the life of me, I can't find a photo of Adam and me right now, but here is a picture I took of him and Stacie in Boston:


So, while I don't really think of Adam as a celebrity, I think it's like that for most celebrities--I think that they are ordinary people who just happen to do a job that makes them stand out from the rest. Whether they love or hate the fame, I guess it comes with the territory! 

And here's a question for YOU... would you want to be a well-known celebrity? Are there any celebrities you're dying to meet? :)


19 comments:

  1. I am a complete mess when I meet a minor celebrity so I can't imagine what I would do if I met someone really famous. I have interacted with a couple online and that made me nearly faint. My favorite was actually Lois Duncan. Maybe not a celebrity in the traditional sense but she was one of my favorite writers. She wrote I Know What You Did Last Summer, among others. She died a few years ago but she had a daughter who was murdered and she was extremely active in trying to save the case and she maintained a website about it up until her death. I commented on it and she answered me and I was blown away. So anyway, since that's all it takes, I'd probably pass out if I met someone I was a big fan of in person.

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    1. Aww, that's so cool she commented back on her blog post! I hope that someday you get to meet someone you're a big fan of--I'm sure you'd make their day with how genuine you are! :)

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  2. That's so cool that you were friends with Adam Grant! Dax and Monica interviewed him for an episode of their Armchair Expert podcast!

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    1. I nearly had a heart attack when I was scrolling through podcasts on my phone, trying to find new ones, and I saw his picture and realized it was my FRIEND Adam Grant--not just any Adam Grant! I would love to get back in touch with him to hear how everything came about for him, but I always knew he'd be great at whatever he chose to do. He was super determined!

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  3. Off-topic so please excuse (and no, I wouldn't want to be a celebrity as it could hinder the current lifestyle I have and love).

    I just finished watching the ragnar docu. I cannot express enough how thankful I am for all of you guys to put yourself out there expressing your inner-most fears and feelings. I too am a runner (beginner, but still a runner also trying to lose weight) and although I HATED running in the beginning (aching lungs, knees and pretty much everything else) I have come to love the feeling after. I have a question you might have discussed in a previous post, so please excuse me if you have: I am a large breasted woman in dire need of a good, supporting sports bra. Do you have any recommendations? Thanks, and please keep at it.

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    1. Running is SO HARD in the beginning, I agree! But the after-effect is amazing :) I don't have big boobs, but my sister does--and she HIGHLY recommends sports bras by a brand called Enell (Enell.com). I've heard great things about them!

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    2. Thank you, Katie!

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  4. OMG! I adore Adam Grant and I have read his books and heard his podcast. He is definitely the only “celebrity” I’d love to meet on your list!! 😊. PS: yes, I’m a business nerd. Got an MBA and used to read articles on Economocs as a hobby. 😂

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    1. That is so funny! I wish I was still friends with him so I could tell him what a fan you are ;) I used to tease him for being such a "nerd", so maybe that's why he quit talking to me--I guess he got the last laugh, though! Hahaha.

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  5. There's no way I would want to be a celebrity. I hate attention as is! I remember dreading my wedding day just because I knew all eyes would be on me! :) Lol. I think the most famous person I've ever met is Kip Moore, a country singer. He was very sweet and actually acted like he wanted to talk to us! Which I really appreciated, he was very engaged. I think it's fun to meet celebrities, especially ones you're a fan of, but don't put me on the list for being one anytime soon! ;)

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    1. That's great that he was so sweet and didn't seem annoyed that you talked to him--I think that says a lot about celebrities when they are polite to fans like that!

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  6. Katie, that's amazing that you were friends with Adam Grant! I can't believe you've never shared that here. I went to Penn, the university where he is a professor at the business school (Wharton). He was the youngest ever professor there, and it's the top business school in the country! All the undergrad students I knew were desperate to have a class with him :) You know someone that every top student and executive in the country would like to meet.

    I wouldn't want to be a celebrity that *everyone* knew (like a movie star or politician), but I wouldn't mind being well-known and recognizable in my field. Like Adam Grant can probably still go out in public without being harassed or photographed, but everyone in his field would know and respect him.

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    1. This blows my mind! I know absolutely NOTHING about business, and I'd never heard of Wharton until I saw that he was a professor there. I hope that he is still the same genuine, truly "nice guy" that he always was when I knew him. I feel bad for teasing him for being a nerd! Hahaha.

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  7. Adam Grant? I totally wasted him at Cranium. Remember?
    I've met a couple celebrities through the years, most of them through my Star Wars Celebration experience. They were friendly, rushed, and incredibly distracted and overwhelmed. They were walking into a convention center filled with adoring Star Wars fans. Now, imagine being out on the street and having to look over your shoulder the entire time worried about when the next fan will pop out and want a selfie or an autograph. You have no privacy. I saw Bill Maher at a hotel around us, a fancy 'Celebrate Your Wedding Anniversary' type and not the 'bring a roll of quarters for the vibrating bed of lovemaking assistance' type. He looked nervous as he realized I knew who he was. But, in the interest of privacy, I smiled and waved and went on my way.
    However, I do have one embarrassing experience. When we met Justin Verlander I froze. He was just coming off a season-ending ending injury that crippled my beloved Tigers playoff hopes and he was coming back to start the season fresh. As I shook his hand I wanted to to say was 'Welcome back! This is the year for our Tigers and I know that he's going to have a Cy Young winning year' but what came out was 'Congratulations'. Perfect, Jerry. Idiot. LOL. Maybe, deep down, I was congratulating him on netting Kate Upton... one of the most beautiful women in the world. Yeah... that's it. Kate Upton.

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    1. Yes, Adam was definitely not happy when you and Shannon beat us at Cranium. I'm sure he blamed me! ;)

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  8. I don't pay too much attention to celebrities either, but I have met a few well known people. Some of my most fun meetings were baseball players. Randy Johnson, Tina Martinez, Lou Pinella, those were really fun. But the most impressive person I have had the pleasure of talking to was Obama. I sat by him on an airplane months before he declared he was running for president. I was traveling back from DC while interviewing for a job with the CIA and was reading an article about how he was about to declare, and then there he was! He was very kind and we had a nice chat then wished each other luck on our upcoming career opportunities as we parted way in Chicago. One I will never forget :)

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  9. Hilarious story, I'm going to share with you about meeting celebrities...I read Sherry and John's blog, Young House Love and have followed it for years. The two of them met in New York where they lived and worked...when she first moved to New York, she was young and so excited to actually run into someone she knew at an outside lunch venue one day. She was with a girlfriend at lunch...Anyway, she sees an older gentleman, that she thinks taught with her dad at some college years ago, so she approaches him and introduces herself and tells him about her dad and how she remembers him as one of her dad's colleagues. She's very enthusiastic and he keeps interrupting her saying, no I think you are mistaken...Her friend is laughing at this point, and Sherry is determined to convince this man that she knows him as a friend of her father's...Finally, he just tells her, look I am Kevin Bacon!!! BWAAAAHAAAA! I ROLLED and have never forgotten that story...

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  10. What an interesting topic! I definitely would NOT want to be a celebrity. I have met a few celebrities of note, however. When I was very young (10-11 years old) I was a huge Star Trek fan (still am) and I went to a "Trekker" Convention and met George Takei. I still have the Polaroid pictures from that. It was awesome! About that same time, Bill Clinton (when he was governor of AR) came to my school and I got to meet him and shake his hand. In the late 80s I was working at a Waffle House and Milli Vanilli (hahaha) came in and I got their autographs. Then in the 90s, Billy Bob Thorton and Laura Dern filmed a scene from a movie ("Daddy and Them"- it went straight to video) in my parents convenience store. I got to hang out with the crew and watch while they filmed. They were both super-sweet, and Dern said that she liked my dimples and that they meant I was kissed by angels when I was born :) Around that same time I saw Melanie Griffith in a Walmart where I was working as a Revlon merchandiser (which was a great job, BTW). She was in the electronics department with her kids and I went up to her and said something (that I'm sure was really stupid) and she was also very gracious. Most recently, I met Beau Bridges when they were filming "Bloodlines" in the hospital where I work. I got to set up his fake IV and put him on a pretend monitor. That was a lot of fun! It was great to read your stories and your readers comments. It was fun thinking back to try to remember who all I had met. Thanks for the walk down memory lane.

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  11. I used to meet a lot of celebrities when I worked as a hotel concierge. My favorites were Stephen Colbert, Goran Visnjic, Craig T Nelson and Mike Shinoda. I used to get nervous, but realized that I still have to remain professional. Ha!

    I would LOVE to meet Bryan Cranston. He seems so funny and probably has a lot of great stories.

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I used to publish ALL comments (even the mean ones) but I recently chose not to publish those. I always welcome constructive comments/criticism, but there is no need for unnecessary rudeness/hate. But please--I love reading what you have to say! (This comment form is super finicky, so I apologize if you're unable to comment)

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